San Francisco cops expected to get body-worn cameras

1of2Sergeant Tanzanika Carter with the BART police force, wears the Axon Taser Flex video camera while on patrol in the Embarcadero BART station in San Francisco, Ca., on Wednesday Nov. 20, 2013. San Francisco Police officers will also start using the body mounted video cameras very soon.Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

2of2Sergeant Tanzanika Carter with the BART police force, wears the Axon Taser Flex video camera while on patrol in the Powell Street BART station in San Francisco, Ca., on Wednesday Nov. 20, 2013. San Francisco Police officers will also start using the body mounted video cameras very soon.Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Mayor Ed Lee is proposing to spend more than $3 million to equip every San Francisco Police Department patrol officer with a body-worn camera, a move that comes amid a national firestorm over the way police treat people of color.

The plan, which is to be announced Thursday, taps funds from the mayor’s proposed two-year budget. It is expected to gain broad support and would make San Francisco’s police force one of the biggest in the nation to put the technology to widespread use.

The city would buy about 1,600 of the wearable devices, according to the mayor’s office. Police Chief Greg Suhr said San Francisco International Airport will provide additional funding to outfit 200 officers there.

“San Francisco deserves the best in 21st century policing, and technology has a part to play in that,” Lee said. “In light of what is happening across the country, we need to do everything we can to build trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”

Protests swept the nation following several highly publicized police killings of unarmed black men. Since Michael Brown was fatally shot in August by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo., many have called for more accountability and an end to racially biased policing — a call heightened this month with the in-custody injury that led to the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

Bigoted text messages

In San Francisco, the Police Department has come under scrutiny after racist and homophobic text messages, exchanged among several officers, emerged out of a corruption case against former police Sgt. Ian Furminger.

Federal charges were filed against Furminger and five other plainclothes officers after city Public Defender Jeff Adachi released surveillance video showing officers seemingly conducting warrantless searches of residential hotel rooms and stealing property. Adachi has since pushed the department to get body-worn cameras.

Several Bay Area cities use the cameras, including Oakland, Union City and Campbell, with officers expected to record during any investigative encounter. Police watchdogs see accountability, while some police leaders see a way to shield officers from bogus accusations.

But the cameras have also raised questions — among them, how the footage should be stored and who should see it. One pivotal question is whether an officer who shoots someone should be allowed to view the footage before making a statement.

San Francisco must still come up with policies for use of the technology.

“If we can give the public the confidence that any misconduct is going to be on video, thereby reducing it, and if the officers know that anybody making (a false) assertion will also be able to be debunked by video, it’s a win-win situation,” Suhr said.

The corruption charges against the plainclothes officers led to a $250,000 federal grant that was supposed to fund a pilot program equipping 50 plainclothes supervisors with body cameras. The pilot program was set to roll out in 2013, but Suhr said Wednesday it never happened due to logistical problems, including with data storage.

He said he hoped to repurpose the grant in the larger program.

Chauncee Smith, a racial justice advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union, said San Francisco’s program would rise or fall based on whether strong rules are enacted.

“Like any surveillance technology, body cameras have the ability to be intrusive,” he said. “Policies should account for sensitive social situations, for example, if a law enforcement officer is going to be interacting with someone who is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault.”

In addition, Smith and other critics of body-worn cameras say officers have failed to turn them on in key situations.

“The devil is in the details,” Smith said. “We support body-worn cameras if they’re used correctly, as with any surveillance technology.”

Stringent policies

Suzy Loftus, president of the San Francisco Police Commission, said the cameras will not be used until the commission puts in place stringent policies.

“Body cameras are a very important step to make sure that everybody sees each other and we have as much transparency as possible,” she said. “Having body cameras is going to be the new normal for police departments. It is the future, and we want to start as soon as possible.”

The mayor’s budget must be approved by the Board of Supervisors. There is no timetable for the cameras to be on the street, but officials want to get the project started as soon as possible.

Board of Supervisors President London Breed said Wednesday that she had been discussing the technology for a long time and is excited.

“We just can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting a better result,” she said.

Vivian Ho has worked for the San Francisco Chronicle since 2011, covering crime and breaking news as a Go Team reporter with a desk in the Hall of Justice. She reported on Black Lives Matter demonstrations, the Occupy movement, the Napa earthquake, the Rim Fire and the World Series riots as well as on homicides, criminal street gangs, sexual assaults, domestic violence cases and police personnel matters. She also writes for Chronicle Watch, a weekly column exploring stubborn issues in the Bay Area. Before she joined The Chronicle, Vivian reported for the Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Vivian spent most of her life in the frozen tundra that is New England and has a hard time understanding weather stories in California.